CARLSBAD: Foreclosure attorney should be disbarred, state bar says

State bar officials said Thursday that a Carlsbad attorney who advised his clients to break into their foreclosed homes should lose his law license by default after he failed to take part in disbarment proceedings.

But even if attorney Michael Theodore Pines had participated, a judge in the California State Bar's court said she had enough evidence of Pines' misconduct to recommend that he be disbarred.

Pines could not be reached Thursday, and the attorney who represented him in a North County criminal case involving his foreclosure clients did not return a call for comment. (Pines is one of two attorneys in San Diego County with the name of Michael Pines. The other Michael Pines, whose office is in La Jolla, has no association with the Michael Pines in this case.)

Two years ago, Pines made headlines when he staged media events in Escondido, Carlsbad and other Southern California cities, in which he helped clients break into their foreclosed homes. He was arrested at least three times for the practice.

One state bar court judge said that Pines viewed himself "as a modern-day Henry David Thoreau, who encouraged civil disobedience to effect universal societal benefits."

Pines' unorthodox tactics regarding his foreclosure cases led to his troubles. The state bar accused him of misconduct, while prosecutors in three counties charged him with crimes, including one count of stalking a man in North County.

The recommendation for Pines' disbarment was announced Thursday, but was part of a June 11 ruling by State Bar Court Judge Lucy Armendariz. As a matter of routine, Pines' law license is technically "inactive" until the California Supreme Court acts on the disbarment recommendation.

The recommendation was not a surprise. In May 2011, the California Bar Association suspended his license ---- Pines called the proceedings "a sham" ---- and charged him with 18 counts of misconduct in his representation of the former owners of three foreclosed homes in Southern California, including one in Carlsbad.

On Thursday, state bar association attorney Brooke Schafer said Pines' advice and actions only added to the troubles his foreclosure clients faced.

"He actually put his clients in danger of civil and criminal penalties by encouraging them and helping them to break the law," Schafer said.

In the North County criminal case, county prosecutors accused Pines of stalking ---- via email and phone calls ---- a man who moved into a foreclosed Carlsbad home that had belonged to one of Pines' clients. Pines also faced charges for allegedly harassing the man's business partner.

Prosecutors also accused him of threatening the new owner of the home with violence and repeatedly returning to the property in violation of a temporary restraining order.

During a hearing in that criminal case last fall, Pines' rambling statements ---- including assertions that he was privy to murder-for-hire plots targeting police and public officials ---- led a Vista-based judge to say he feared Pines might be "delusional" and to order his mental competency evaluated.

On June 4, following a formal competency evaluation, a different judge found Pines competent to stand trial. That same day, Pines pleaded guilty to felony stalking and other charges in the Carlsbad case, Deputy District Attorney James Romo said.

Pines' sentencing was set for 2015, and his felony conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor if he stays law-abiding, Romo said.

As Pines faced the North County case, Orange County prosecutors had a criminal case against him for encouraging a client to break into his foreclosed Newport Beach home. In September, it took an Orange County jurors about an hour to convict Pines of various misdemeanors, including attempted second-degree burglary, in that matter.